National Wreaths Across America Day is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 16, and Park City Cemetery is one of the locations that will honor the event.
A short patriotic ceremony, with a presentation by Russell Ferrick, will start at 10 a.m.
Local youth Coen Nelson, 14, will perform “Taps” on the trumpet, and the Park City Sunrise Rotary Club, Rotary Club of Park City and the Rotary Club of Park City Twilight, along with the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Young Men’s Service League, will lay wreaths on veteran’s graves.
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a nonprofit founded in 1890, is a “non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children,” according to its website.
Its current membership is approximately 190,000 members in 3,000 chapters across the United States and around the world.
Women, ages 18 years or older, regardless of race, religion or ethnic background, and who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the Revolutionary War, are eligible for membership, according to the website.
Likewise, the Young Men’s Service League is a nonprofit of mothers and their high school-aged sons who volunteer together to serve their local communities.
The league’s membership is currently more than 12,500 moms and 13,000 young men in 135 chapters across 18 states.
Bobbi Williams, National Wreaths Across America locations co-leader, felt Park City Cemetery was a good place to place the wreaths.
“We have 164 veterans buried in the Park City Cemetery,” she said.
Park City’s ceremony will coincide with the noon ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, and ceremonies across the mainland will take place at 11 a.m. in Central Time and 9 a.m. in California, she said.
National Wreaths Across America day is a free, non-political event, according to Williams.
“(It) honors and remembers our nation’s veterans who are laid to rest in more than 3,700 participating locations nationwide” she said. “The mission is to ‘remember the fallen, honor those that serve and teach the next generation the value of freedom year-round.'”
Wreaths Across America was founded in 2007 by Morrill Worcester, and in 2008, the United States Senate designated Dec. 13 as Wreaths Across America Day, Williams said.
Throughout the years, the National Wreaths Across America Day has been scheduled for the second or third Saturday of December, she said.
While the ceremony at Park City Cemetery starts at 10 a.m., Williams suggests attendees arrive a few minutes early to find parking.